有人可以翻譯這篇嗎?好像AI要退休了~ - 籃球

Iverson: "I'll retire before I do this again."

MacArthur also said, "I shall return."
On Wednesday, after a dispiriting 111-98 loss to the Nets in which he played
only 17 minutes and 20 seconds and scored four points, Allen Iverson said
won't do the latter if he feels his skills, his health and his playing time
are doing the former.

Iverson, a free agent after this season and one of the NBA's grittier
warriors now in his 13th season, said he'd be willing to hang 'em up
if he couldn't find the right situation for 2009-10.

"I won't do this again, in my career," Iverson said of his role as a
role player with the Pistons. "I'll retire before I do this again. I
would leave the game before I do this. I can't be effective like I know
I can playing this way.

"It's just that I'm not used to it. Just not something I've had to do.
Like I said, it's hard for me mentally and physically."
Iverson, who came to the Pistons in a Nov. 3 trade for Chauncey Billups,
missed 16 games because of a back injury, has also been limited by a injury
to his right shin, which he injured in his first scrimmage after returning
from his back injury. The physical maladies are weighing on Iverson.

"I'm a competitor. I love to play," Iverson said. "There's nothing more
that I like to do than play basketball. I love to play. I don't think I'm
any good at playing basketball if I'm not happy. I don't think too many
people would be.

"I'd rather be playing basketball and be happy at the same time. Basketball
has always made me happy, it's always been a safe haven for me. It's always
made me happy."

He did say he would be satisfied with his career -- as is -- if he did
choose to retire.

"I'm with happy with my career and the things I've done in my career,
" Iverson said. "I'm blessed, I feel blessed to accomplish the things I
have accomplished in my career and do the things I've done. I would feel
fine if I had to do [retire]."

But he wouldn't like it if he felt he had to make that choice.

"It's not something I want to do," Iverson said, "because I love
playing the game so much and I want to be out there on the basketball
court, if that's something I need to do, then so be it.

"At this point in my career, I just want to be somewhere where I can
be happy. That's the most important thing to me. I don’t want to not
want to go to work. When you're doing what you love to do, you're
supposed to love doing it.

"And once I get to that point when I don't love it anymore, I won't do it."

On Wednesday, it sounded as if he were close.

"No, I'm not happy at all. I would be lying if I said I was," Iverson
said. "But I'm trying to do everything I can to be happy other than
basketball. This is just one phase of my life not my whole life.

"Basketball is not my whole life. I have other part of my life, other
people in my life that I'm surrounded with that make me happy. This is
just a stepping stone in my life."

About halfway through the fourth quarter of the game, a friend IMed me
about Iverson.

"Have you even noticed AI playing tonight?"

Noticed, yes ... especially when a former NBA MVP and nine-time All-Star
gets a little more than a quarter-hour of playing time, his lowest total
of the season.

But, what he meant was "impact." A.I. once was a guy teams planned for,
schemed for, accounted for at all times. He could change the course of a
game as quickly as he could crossover helpless defenders.

But at 33-years-old and with 33,000 falls, bumps and bruises on his
slight frame since he entered the NBA in 1996, A.I. is not that guy
any longer, especially if he's not on the floor.

And with his contract expiring at the end of this season, Iverson's
value to his current team and any potential future team has never been lower.

Maybe that's why after the game, Iverson sat on his chair in the visiting
locker room at Izod Center with a faraway look in his eyes, looking at
nothing in particular.

Or maybe he was just seeing his basketball life flash before his eyes.

MORE A.I.

Most the Iverson quotes above came in the second half of questions Iverson
answered. In the first half, Iverson started out tersely, then gradually
opened up.

Reporter: Can you see a way to get this thing going?

Iverson: Do I see a way? My way probably don't matter.

Reporter: Do you get the sense that time's running out. There are only
seven games left and the other teams are playing well?

Iverson: I definitely think that way. It seems as if we're not getting
any better. And teams are elevating their games at the right time.

Reporter: How surprised are you that this team after you came here is .500
and is fighting for a playoff berth?

Iverson: Definitely surprised.

Reporter: What do you think has caused this to happen?

Iverson: I'm not getting into that. I can't win that battle.

Reporter: Have all the changes in this team made it difficult to establish
the continuity you need to be a really good team...

Iverson: No, we've had a lot of time to bring things together. We had a lot
of time, that's nowhere near any kind of excuse we can use."

Reporter: How much is the calf limiting you and how much you can do out on
the court?

Iverson: It's my shin. I don't make excuses like that. If I'm out on the
basketball court and playing, then that's enough for me. It's just tough.
I'm in a predicament, a position that I've never been in in my entire life,
especially in the NBA. It's hard. It's been harder for me, physically and
mentally. When you have a back injury like I had, and sit out the whole
first quarter and play a little bit in the second. You sit out for the last
three to five minutes of the second quarter and then the whole
halftime and another quarter after that. It's just tough to get going.
I said the other day, I take my hat off to guys who come off the bench to
get it done the way they do. It's just tough for me. I'm struggling with
physically and mentally.

Reporter: You made a comment the other day about how this is a temporary
situation. What did you mean by that?

Iverson: I won't do this again, in my career. I'll retire before I do this
again. I would leave the game before I do this. I can't be effective like
I know I can playing this way. It's just that I'm not used to it. Just not
something I've had to do. Like I said, it's hard for me mentally and
physically.

Reporter: So, on a positive note, what can you say about guys coming off
the bench?

Iverson: Like I said. I take my hat off to the guys that can do it. And
some guys get used to it. They've done it before. Like I said, I've been
playing basketball since I was eight-years-old, and I never had to do it.
At 33-years-old, to have to adjust to something like that it's kind of tough.
That's something I'm dealing with as far as my rhythm, my timing and like
I said, the mental part of that.

Reporter: Would it be 100 percent physically? You don't want to make any
excuses, but that's limiting you?

Iverson: I'm not going to make any excuse as far as my health. If I can go
out there and get on a basketball court, I should be able to get it done.
And I'm not, that's nobody's fault but mine. I point the responsibility at
me. The situation I'm put in and I have to overcome the adversity of doing
what I have to do. I'm a professional. And I have to find a way to get it
done, somehow, someway. Whatever it takes. Anybody that knows me, my
teammates, my fans, the people that watch me play, know that I'm
not 100 percent. It makes it a little bit harder to do it.

Reporter: Your shin, when did you hurt it?

Iverson: The first day I came back, the first day I scrimmaged.
Arnie [Kander, the Pistons strength and conditioning coach] was saying it
was because not playing that long and putting that much pressure on it.
The next day, it seemed as if everything was hurting except my back. It's
just not playing for a while."


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